I have a 91 beater Volvo that's been a challenge to pass inspection every year, and we're coming up on the time again. Each time I say well maybe one more year. But we have three people working and two cars, need to keep both running or give up and buy something newer.

There are several electrical problems but the one that will fail inspection is the driver's side power window. The other three work fine. I've cleaned the switch, it is actually the connection between switch and harness.

So here's my maybe dumb idea: I swap the wires between the driver's window and passenger window at the master switch. I can't just swap connectors, all four are unique, so it's cut and splice. There are four wires to each switch: power, ground, up, down. I have a decent quality crimper and choice of butt splice connectors and male/female connectors (which the autoparts guy recommended).

My daughter is sure this will result in neither window working. I don't see any theoretical reason why, if done slowly and carefully, this shouldn't succeed. But I've been wrong before.

I love creative car fixes but why not just fix or replace what's broken? Junk yard? Multiple switches for one window might mess up your plan. Your daughter has a point about possibly messing up the other window too.

if there's one in the junkyard, just take a big set of shears and cut the harness a few inches from the switch connector. Grab that pigtail, the switch, and then cut/splice the pigtail into your existing harness.

Just go slow, take your time, and buy good quality crimp connectors/cutters/strippers/crimper.

Can the wires be removed from the harness and hard connected to the switch?

There are four switches that clamp into the module.

the connector module fits in from underneath.

The switches have male pins on the bottom, but they don't extend below the enclosure. The connector has female pins that likewise go to the edge of a square box connector. The connector fits into the underside of the switch such that the box goes inside and the pins connect. That was my first thought but I could not figure a way to make a connection.

So both a switch on the door and a switch on a center console have failed?

Are you required to have a window to pass inspection?

The driver's door panel has four switches for four windows. The other three windows have one switch each.

The requirement to pass is only to open the driver's window. Maybe if you get stopped by police? The other three can be nonfunctional, although in my case that would apply only to the driver's switch. The passenger could use their own switch.

And, in this weather, they'd have to. Did I mention the AC hasn't worked in years? Nor the clock or radio, etc. It wasn't in great shape when we got it, but it seems to hang in there forever, dying a piece at a time. My wife is two miles from work and I'm six, and we don't drive it much farther.

Sounds like a variant of the Molex connector. The female pins have a tab that keeps them from slipping out of the connector block. In order to remove the pins you have to release the tab.

Here is a female pin. Note the tabs about halfway along the connector (the back end of the pin is a crimp connector):

I have a tool somewhere for removing Molex pins from the connector blocks. It goes in from the "business" side and closes the locking tab so the pin can be removed.

I think Bruce is on to a possible solution here, with the right tools these molex connectors are relatively easy to repair. You need a pin removal tool, and a crimper and you can buy bags of replacement pins. If the connectors have been loose for a while they may have drawn excessive current and damaged the wiring insulation, if that's the case run new wires of the same gage on the outside of the harness and wire tie them in place (cut the old wires back and tape them so they don't make contact with anything)

One more symptom: I keep the switch module loose in the door handle. I can always make it work by pulling it out, getting a finger under the connector for that switch, and pulling up on it. Of course that's a pain, especially when my wife has driven and pushed it down deep into the door. So that leaves the diagnosis a little vague. It could be the pins not holding, or the plastic case around them that no longer fits tightly. (and yes, I tried a kluge job with rubber bands and tooth picks trying to put some compression on it; no luck)

Yes, replacing the pins seems the ideal solution, provided the plastic case still snaps tightly, and I don't know how to test that. Swapping for the passenger door is an inelegant solution. There must be some way to get new pins but I haven't found it.

Anyway, progress. At the auto salvage yard today I found several Volvos. Only one, a 1989, had a window switch with connectors that seem to match mine, so I snipped the wiring harness and took the whole thing. $10.99. Plus a bunch of tax and fees. So now my plan is to splice in the matching connector onto the drivers switch wires. If that works I'm done. If not, I buy some pins, and I now have 12 others to practice on (the three other switches in the module). If there were more access I'd just solder on female pins that are even close, but we're talking 4 pins in a half inch square, buried deep. I can do almost all the work in my basement with good light and room to work. It's a 28 year old component, it's not unlikely the salvage yard one is bad too.

I don't have time to finish this weekend, work calls, hopefully I'll try for next.

I spent last week at Camp Blanding Florida doing Army stuff. Ever been there? Fly into Jacksonville or Gainesville, drive a couple hours into the woods. They have a perfectly round lake, someday I'll google why it's so round.

So now I'm back. Saturday was Bonefire (back on tenor playing third after two straight weeks exclusively on alto) and mowing the lawn in 99 F weather. Today I fixed the car.

I carefully marked every wire on the switch with tape, and every wire on the junkyard connector. I cut off the old connector and put male bullet connectors on four wires and female on the other four. Snapped them together, and the window works. Then I taped over all the connections and stuck the switch back down inside the door.

I don't know how long it will last. But the car's been on borrowed time for a good while. We'll see.